Welcome

I’m an author of novels, short stories and poetry, a writing tutor and public speaker. I love stories, short or long: reading them, writing them and helping other people to find and tell their own.

Here you can find out a bit about me and my books, my latest news and upcoming events, and how to get in touch.

Judith

“An utterly compelling story, characters you care about deeply and a real feeling for the thread of the uncanny that runs through our lives.”

Margaret Leroy

“I loved the gut-wrenching reality of birth and death in a world where people were just an extension of their machines. A book that lingers in the memory.”

Catharine Arnold

“A gripping, moving, ambitious novel. A huge achievement.”

Myra Schnieder

News

Join me in September at Writing School East Midlands

Workshop: Waking your Characters

How can you kindle a character into life? Through practical workshop exercises, you will learn how to use visualisation, profiling, sketching and hot-seating to develop characters, learning a range of techniques that can be used again and again. We will also consider extracts from the work of established writers in order to reach an understanding of the use of objects and setting in discovering and illuminating character. Come with a character currently in development or form a new one at the workshop from stimulus material provided.

Brand New Workshop: Aladdin’s Cave – New Words from Old

As presented at the National Association of Writers in Education Conference.

Drawing on the language of the past can rejuvenate one’s writing. In this workshop, quaint expressions and strange words with long-lost meanings will fire your imagination and free you to invent, experiment and be playful. By examining extracts by acclaimed historical fiction writers we will explore ways to refresh imagery and inject charm, liveliness and colour into one’s writing. Writing exercises based on fascinating historical documents will encourage you to enter past worlds and generate new narratives.

Suitable for writers at all levels.

To find out more about this workshop or to book a session for your group, festival or organisation, please do get in touch.

Details of the full range of workshops and a contact form can be found on the Teaching page.